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We journalists are not usually the focus of the news, but I think it is very important that we talk about the increase in violence against colleagues in Mexico. Violence against women journalists has been a constant over the past decade, but it is notable that it has skyrocketed over the past three years, according to a recent report released by the CIMAC organization. What I want to talk about today is nothing new, considering that Mexico is one of the most violent countries in the world to practice journalism. However, attacks, harassment and digital violence against women journalists are becoming increasingly serious.
The CIMAC Freedom of Speech and Gender program collects and documents cases through media monitoring, interviews and data sharing with networks of journalists and human rights defenders in the country. And the results are alarming. If the 248 attacks on journalists in the first three years of Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year term are compared to the 767 cases of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s three-year term, the increase in these attacks is 209.27%.
There is something that catches our attention. While the attacks directed against male journalists are limited to their professional environment, those perpetrated against female journalist colleagues are usually accompanied by a misogynist and sexist accusation intended to silence them. For this it tries to end their dignity by undermining them in the most intimate and personal. CIMAC documented that psychological violence, threats, intimidation, harassment and discrediting of work are present in 78.74% of attacks on journalists, which can lead to smear campaigns.
The report includes the testimonies of several journalists who describe in their own words what these attacks on the freedom to exercise their profession were: death threats, messages with sexual content, disclosure of personal information and intimidation of their families. As in the case of Reyna Haydee Ramírez, a reporter from Sonora, who received severe threats after questioning President López Obrador during a morning conference. “They censored, blocked and prevented me from entering the National Palace,” the journalist said in a testimony. “I find it shameful that the President has fallen for this Who’s Who lying program because it’s stigmatizing and attacking. [Después de cuestionarle] A lot of criticism has rained down on me on Twitter and of course it affects you and affects you, because a word from the President is an order to attack those who disagree with him, ”adds Ramírez.
According to data provided by CIMAC, it is the reporters covering political sources who receive the most attacks for their work (54.49%), followed by media directors (14.86%) and columnists (8%). A year ago, in EL PAÍS, I told you how Mexican columnists denounced the same violence that, not because it is virtual, is less dangerous. Political scientist Denise Dresser, for example, was booed at a march by supporters of the presidential Morena party on October 2. She herself acknowledges that technology has fueled hate messages against her, which have increased since López Obrador came to power. “We live in an age of political polarization where it’s all too common to discredit the messenger with misogynist comments rather than listening to the message,” says Dresser.
These expressions of hate pass through the sexual plane: “crazy”, “spoiled”, “old”, “ugly”… The attack, mainly by male users, reduces women to a body that they extensively denigrate with rape, murder or threats. And this is unfortunately an international trend. According to UNESCO, 73% of journalists worldwide are victims of cyberbullying because of their work. “It’s been a common practice for millennia to discredit women in public, although we’ve never seen it done in Mexico,” adds Dresser.
Cecilia Solís, a partner from Quintana Roo, was shot in the leg in 2020 while covering a feminist demonstration that was violently broken up by Cancun Metropolitan Police. These attacks are directly related to the criminalization of the feminist protests that have taken place in recent years by the various governments. According to the most recent report I spoke about at the beginning, feminist protests have become the main scenario in which women in the union face violence, including photographers and cameramen with 13.16% of attacks, followed by attacks on colleagues investigating corruption cases (10.16%) and those covering elections (7.56%).
So far this year alone, 17 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, including four women. The general belief is that drug trafficking is usually behind violence against reporters, however organizations such as CIMAC and international organizations defending journalists’ rights, such as Article 19, have for years pointed out that those primarily responsible for these attacks are municipal officials and state order. According to the CIMAC report, federal, state and federal officials are behind the attacks on the journalists in 41.72% of the cases. Of these crimes, more than 90% remain unsolved and when progress is made in the case, it is very difficult to find the masterminds.
I would like to end today with the words of journalist Lydia Cacho, who was banned from Mexico today for her work: “Feminism has given us life as professional fortune tellers, and political patriarchy in all its forms is trying to take that life away from us , Dignity and Freedom because they know that by silencing us they are silencing millions of victims of the most atrocious forms of violence, discrimination, war and slavery.”
It took many centuries before we could use our voice. Don’t let these brave women go out. For the companions who are no longer here and for everyone who will come after us.
And finally, the recommendations of the week:
The Presidential Adviser for Equity speaks about the tremendous challenges of addressing the violence women face in Colombia
The Constitutional Court is asking Congress to legislate on the matter after denouncing a woman taken in a public restroom
A court exonerates Nicolás Pachelo, a resident of the country of Carmel, in the third trial for the crime committed 20 years ago
El PAÍS journalist Javier Rodríguez Marcos reviews the day-to-day life of the Guadalajara Book Fair, the most important publishing event in Spanish
The demand for indifference from the authorities in the face of impunity for the murder of women reaches the halls of the world’s largest book fair
At 74, the Chilean poet, painter and activist is one of the great artists of Latin America, although her recognition came late. EL PAÍS talks to her about exile, climate crisis and lies as “political will” in FIL
Education for equal rights means becoming aware of the inequalities between men and women, recognizing macho attitudes and reflecting and discussing these with minors
Dozens of people from 15 countries meet in Panama in innovation labs trying to improve the quality of life for women and girls
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